Rotary engine.



w. A. Hmm. ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICTION FILED lANSl| 1918.

Patented Dee. 24, 1918.

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W. A. FIFIEL.

ROTARY ENGINE.

- APFUCATION FILED IANH| 1918- 1 pQ-a Patented. Dec. 24, 1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24, 1918.

Application filed January 31, 1918. Serial No. 214,680.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. Firmin), subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Abbey, Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines, of which the following is a specification.

rIhis invention relates to rotary engines and has for its object the provision of a simple, eliicient and compact mechanism whereby the rotor may be driven through a part of its rotation by velocity of steam and through the remaining portion of its rotation by the expansive force of the steam and its own momentum. A further object of the inven-tion is to provide means whereby the engine may be caused to rotate in either direction as may be desired without involving a multiplicity of rotors or pistons. Other incidental objects will appear as the description proceeds and the invention resides in certain novel features which are illustrated in the acompanying drawings and particularly pointed out in the claims following the detailed description.

In the drawings- Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rotary engine embodying my improvements;

IFig. 2 is a plan view of the same;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of the rotor;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the lower member of the casing;

Fig. 6 is a, diagrammatic view partly in sect-ion and partly in elevation, showing the manner in which the piston is turned to pass the abutment in the operation of the rotor;

Fig. 7 is a detailed section through the abutment;

Fig. 8 is a view partly in section and partly in elevation showing a modified form of the casing whereby the abutment will be so constructed as to act upon the piston and effect the required turning of the same;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of the form of piston shown in Fig. 8.

In carrying out my present invention, I employ a base 1 which may be of any desired type and is illustrated as consisting o f a circular plate or ring which may be rigldly secured or anchored to a fixed support. Upon this base plate or ring, I provide a plurality of legs 2 which support and may "vided upon the outer side of the casing member 3 to carry a bearing 5 for the engine shaft 6, and the other casing member, 7, is provided on its outer side with a similar spider or bracket 8 carrying a 'bearing 9 for the said shaft. `Stuffing boxes 10 are provided on the outer faces of the said casing members around the driving shaft to prevent leakage of the steam or other motive fluid as will be readily understtood.

The casing members are of like construction Vand are secured together by bolts 11 inserted through their edge flange portions 12, as clearly shown. The casing members are of course, circular in plan view and immediately adjacent their edge flange portions are provided with troughs or grooves 13 in their opposite faces which are approximately semi-circular in cross-section and which, when brought together, form a tun bular passage for the pistons which are car.- ried by the rotor. Packing, indicated at 14, is also provided between the outer portions of the casing member so as to prevent leakage around the edge of the rotor.

The rotor consists of a disk 15 which is disposed :between the casing members and is secured by a key or other well-known means to the engine or driving shaft 6 so that the rotation of the rotor will 'be imparted directly to the said shaft and may be utilized to drive any desired machinery. A band pulley or its equivalent 16 is secured to one end of the driving shaft and a belt 17 is shown trained around the said pulley for the purpose of transmitting the power therefrom. Near its edge the rotor disk 15 is provided with a substantially circular opening 18 in which is pivotally fitted a piston disk 19. The piston 19 is carried by trunnions or a shaft 2() which is fitted in bearings in the rotor disk 15 at diametrically opposite points of the opening 18 and along a radius of the disk. The inner trunnion or the inner p0rtion of the shaft, as the case may be, is elongated so as to extend into the body of the disk a suliicient distance to carry a pinion 21 and a stop 22 which project through openings 23-24, respectively, in the disk and are adapted to travel in grooves 25?-26 formed in the opposing faces of the casing members. The pinion 21 is adapted to engage racks 27 formed on one or the other casing member at opposite sides of the abutments 28 and, ra-

dially alined with the said racks, recesses 2S are formed in the bases of the grooves26 so as to permit turning of the stop 22. As shown most clearly-in Fig. 6, the stop 22 may conveniently be an angular block, the diameters and diagonals of which are of such length that when the flat faced edges of the stop are presented to the bottoms or bases of the grooves 26, the stop will be held against turning and, consequently, the piston cannot rotate about its axis 20. At the instant, however, that the pinion 21 engages a rack 27 the stop will be brought into the planes of the recesses or cavities 28 and these cavities are deep enough to accommodate the diagonals so that the stop may then turn and, of course, the piston will be rotated. It will be understood that the piston is at a right angle to the rotor disk during the greater portion of its travel so that it will lit closely within the grooves or troughs 13 of the casing members and receive the pressure of the steam or other motive Huid. rlhe abutments 28 are bosses formed upon the inner. opposite surfaces of the casing members within the grooves or troughs 13 and the edges of the abutments are spaced apart a distance approximately equal to the thickness ofthe rotary disk 15, as shown at 29 in Fig. 7. As the piston approaches the abutment it will be given a quarter turn through the action of the pinion 21 and a rack 27 and will thus be brought Within the plane of the rotor disk so that it may pass throughthe space 27, and 'after the piston has cleared the abutment the pinion 21 will engage a second rack 27 which will give the piston another quarter turn and bring it again into position to be acted upon by the motive fluid.

Upon the casing members, l provide enlargements 30 which constitute valve chamibers and ports 31 lead through these enlargements or valve chambers and the casing members to admit the motive fluid tothe trough 13 Ito act upon the piston. The steam or other fluid is supplied through a feed pipe 32 from which branches 33 lead, said branches being coupled to the feed pipe by a valve casing 34 within which is mounted a valve 35. This vvalve contains an `L-shaped port 36 so that the valve may be turned to establish communication between the feed pipe and either branch 33 and thereby direct the driving fluid into either end of the valve chest 30 as may be desired, branches 37 leading from .the ends of the branches 33 to the respectivev valve chests, as shown clearly in Figs. 1 and 3. Duplicate exhaust pipes 3S are provided `upon'the casing and lea-d from the troughs 13 ofthe same betweenthe ends of the valve chests. These exhausts are provided with cutoff valves 39 vwhich are adapted to be simultaneously7 operated. The stems kof vthese vvalves are equipped with cranks 40 connected by a link 41 so that the cranks will always lie parallel and one. valve will be o-pened when the other .is closed. rThe stem of the valve 35 is iitted to or secured in a lever 42 which is connected by a pit'man 43 with the link 41 so that when the lever is vibrated to set the valve 35, the valves 39 will be likewise shifted, and the relative positions of the several valves is such that when the valve 35 is set to direct the lluid pressure into` the engine casing at one side, the exhaust valve at that same side will beclosed and the exhaust valve at the opposite side will be opened.

Slide valves 43 are mounted in the valve chest 30 and are .adapted to open or close the ports 31 in the operation of the engine so that, at the proper period in the rotation of the rotor disk 15, the supply of steam will be cut-off and the further rotation of the disk will be due to the expansive force of the steam and to its own momentum. The slide valves 43 are operated by cams t4 connected to and carried by the engine Shaft 6, one of these cams being disposed on each side of the valve casing, as shown and as will be readily understood. The stems 45 of these valves project through stufiing boxes 46 on the inner arcuate surfaces of the valve chests and are equipped at their free ends Awith pins or rollers 47 which play in the grooves 48 of the cams 44. The cams 44 are of such outline that duringthe greater portion of their travel `the valve operatively connected thereto will loe held open and at a predetermined point of the travel of the rotor the high part of the cam will engage the valve stem and will push the valve inwardly so as to close the port controlled ythereby and, consequently, cut-olf the inflow of steam.

It is thought the operation will be readily understood from. what has been said. The lever 42 having been thrown to one or the other side so as to properly set the valve 35, the steam will pass through the inlet ports and impinge against the piston so as to impart rotary motion to the rotor. 1t will be understood that Ithe steam passes into the casing through both members of the same and will, consequently, be Vsimultaneously applied to the piston at both sides Aof the rotor disk so that the pressure upon .the piston will lbe balanced and the piston will not tend to turn about its own axis. The impact of the steam againstfthe piston will drive the rotor andthe motion thus set up will be transmitted directly to the engine shaft and thence utilized as before stated and as will be readily understood. As the rotor travels around within the casing, the high vparts of the cams 44 will be brought into engagement with the stems Vof the inlet controlling slide valves and said valves will be -pushed to closed position so that further inflow of steam will be cut-off. The expansion .of the steam, however, will continue the movement of the rotor and eventually the piston will clear the exhaust ports, so that the steam will escape. The momentum of the rotor, however, will carry the piston to and beyond the inlet ports and after the piston has cleared the inlet ports the low ports of the cams will come into play and will open the inlet ports so as to admit a fresh supply of steam. As before described, the piston will be rotated so as to lie within the plane of the rotor disk as it approaches the abutment and after it passes the abutment will be again turned to a right angle to the disk and will receive the impact of the iniiowing steam, the space 29 between the opposite abutments being filled by the rotor disk so that the steam cannot flow directly to the exhaust port.

In Figs. 8 and 9, I have shown an arrangement whereby the pinion 21 and stop 22 may be dispensed with and, of course, the grooves 25 and 26 will not be needed. In said figures, 50 and 5l designate the casing members and 52 designates the abutments formed on the inner opposite faces of the said members between the inlet ports 53 and the exhaust ports 54. The rotor disk is indicated at 55 and the piston pivoted therein is indicated at 56. One abutment has its radial end or edge adjacent the exhaust ports 54 beveled or inclined, as shown at 57, and the other abutment has its edge or face presented to the inlet ports beveled or inclined, as shown at 58. The piston is provided with an angular faced trunnion 59 and a spring 60 is secured upon the rotor 55 to bear against the said trunnion 59 and tends to hold the piston in a vertical position. By reference to Fig. 8, it will be readily seen Jthat as the piston is carried past the exhaust ports one portion thereof will be carried against the beveled or inclined surface 57 and the piston will be thereby rotated upon its own axis against the force of the spring 60 so that it will be turned to the plane of the disk, as shown at 61, and may travel between the opposite abutments. As the piston clears the abutment, the spring 61 will be free to act and by its pull upon the trunnion 59 will return the piston to its position across the plane of the disk so that it may receive the pressure of the steam admitted through the inlets 53.

rom the foregoing description, taken 1n connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be seen that I have provided an exceedingly simple and compact engine which may be driven in either direction and which may be efficiently operated with a minimum consumption of motor fluid.

Having thus described my invention, what is claimed as new is:

l. In a rotary engine, the combination of a casing a rotor therein, valve chests on the two sides of the casing, a feed pipe, branch inlet pipes leading from the feed pipes to both ends of both valve chests, slide valves in the ends of the valve chests arranged to extend across the ports of the respective inlet pipes, exhausts leading from the casing adjacent the ends of the valve chests, cut-off valves in the exhausts, a two-way valve controlling communication between the feed pipe and the branch inlet pipes, cranks connected with the cut-oif valves in the exhausts, a link connecting said cranks, a lever connected with the two-way valve, a pitman connecting said lever with said link, and cams rotatable with the rotor and operatively connected with the slide valves whereby motive iiuid will be periodically admitted to the roto-r.

2. In a rotary engine, the combination of a casing consisting of mating members having annular concentric channels in their opposed faces and constructed each with an abutment in one of said channels and with recesses in the base of another channel spaced annularly from the abutment, racks in another channel alined radially with said recesses, a rotor mounted between the members of the casing, means for admitting motive fluid to the rotor, a piston rotatably mounted in the rotor to travel in the firstmentioned channel, a pinion on the axis of the piston to engage said racks and rotate the piston, and a stop on the axis of the piston to bear upon the base of the second-mentioned channel and turn within the recesses therein.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

WILLIAM A. FIFIELD. [L sg Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Iatents, Washington, D. C. 

